Pearl Harbor and My Father

My father, Herbert Brandkamp, served at Pearl Harbor. Admittedly he didn't serve until after the devastating attacks of December 7, 1941. He also served as a civilian because of being deaf in one ear, so he was, by military standards, 4-F. But serve he did. He lived in Hawaii during the war and fell in love with Hawaii and the terrain and people. He revisited the island many times in subsequent years, sometimes just to see the lava flow from Kilauea up close. But during the war he worked for the Navy as a civilian, knowing that the Japanese might revisit their attack on the island. It might have seemed to be the safest place to serve during the war, but those who did, didn't know that. They were always waiting for the next attack.

Hindsight is amazingly insightful, unless of course it blinds us to the realities that existed at the time. Just today I wondered if my father saw the wreckage of the ships before him every day as he served there at Pearl Harbor. He never mentioned that. He mentioned his buddies, the tall tales, the fun stuff, the local culture. He didn't talk about the flights that went out, not knowing if they'd return. Sometime they didn't. Not all of his friends came back.

This date, which FDR famously said will "live in infamy" is becoming more and more a mere date in history for more and more Americans. Of course our own generation has its own infamous "date" which we divide time before and after, 9/11. Just like 12/7 had its iconic meaning for our parents or grandparents 9/11 has a similar meaning for us today. Any culture that has an attack on itself as 12/7 did in years past, or 9/11 did more recently, is left scarred, shaped by that experience, left trying to explain the how and why of what happened. Of course, every culture can claim this reality in their own experience. Every culture has its own traumatic experiences which shape both their identity and responses. Every scar tells us as much about our self as it does about the one who inflicted it. This is true both on the individual and collective level.